Lovesong (11/10/14)

This was a semi-staged musical written by Michael Valenti. The cast and crew included Christine Cornell, Eddie Egan, Mamie Parris, and Jacob Smith as actors/vocalists, with Bill Cox as musical director/pianist, and Bill Ellison playing bass, and with projections by Ron Spivak.

It’s sort of hard to call this a musical, as there was no real extended dialogue, no choreography, and no real staging. It was more of a pastiche or a musical revue, with Love as its theme. All four singers were good (with one slightly weaker than the rest), but here’s the real plus, in my book. They all sang without amplification! Shocking, in this day and age. And we could actually hear them—the pianist and bassist shaded their dynamics so that the unamplified voices were (for the most part) balanced quite well.

The work began its life at the Top of the Village Gate in 1976, which may account for the revue style of writing. Interestingly, the texts come from such diverse authors as A. E. Houseman, Christina Rossetti, Sir Walter Raleigh, Anne Bradstreet, James Agee, Dorothy Parker, and Mr. Valenti, himself, etc., plus the ever-present, prolific Anonymous. This worked well, as it kept the songs interesting from a textual standpoint. Mr. Valenti’s composition style was also varied, including pop, rock lite, standard ballads, a power ballad or two, and such. With thirty-two songs in the show, I will not attempt to cover them all.

Bid Me Love was a sort of long intro to the next song, A Birthday, nicely performed by Ms. Cornell. When We’re Married featured all four, as a pair of married couples, in an Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better sort of piece that was also done well.
To My Dear and Loving Husband had old-fashioned lyrics and was quite tender.
My Husband No. 1 introduced a running gag—one woman commenting on her husband to the other. Her husband is a jockey; he rides horses, and rides them and rides them, “and then he comes home ... and rides me!” Toward the end of the first act, we got My Husband No. 2. He’s a butcher and stuffs sausage all day, and stuffs them and stuffs them, “and then he comes home ... and stuffs me!” The act ended with a fun drinking-song waltz performed by all four.

Act two began with a brief reprise of Let the Toast Pass, the aforementioned drinking song, followed by Echo, a sweet little madrigal. A Rondelay was another madrigal-like song that I really enjoyed—it’s great to hear real harmony in theater songs. Ms. Parris scored a hit with Unhappy Bella, which was very funny. Mr. Egan got a chance to shine in Jenny Kissed Me, and Mr. Smith was very strong in Blood Red Roses, with the other three as backup singers. Act two also brought us
My Husband No. 3. He’s a drummer and bangs cymbals all day, and bangs them and bangs them, “and then he comes home ... and is so tired from banging, he just falls asleep!” The Company was featured in the last two songs, So We’ll Go No More A Roving, and An Epitaph, which closed out the show nicely.

So, a very pleasant Monday evening was had by me. I love the fact that I’m able to explore free and low-cost performances with such regularity. That’s it for now—

ConcertMeister